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Moving forward at Greenbank Farm

Speaking on behalf of the Greenbank Farm Management Group, I’d like to respond to the article that appeared in the Oct. 24 issue of the Whidbey News-Times about the Port Of Coupeville’s review panel and concerns about our finances. The letter from Ms. Gardner that is discussed in the article alludes to accounting and tax reporting deficiencies only in the most general and undefined way. For an organization that strives to be effective and transparent, this is extremely frustrating in that we have no specifics to respond to.

That said, we have looked through everything we have, worked with our CPA, and asked as many hard questions as we could think of. We are proud that we are constantly reviewing and improving our accounting systems just as we are proud that we have always corrected oversights as we were made aware of them. Even so, we have not found anything of the scope or severity that Ms. Gardner refers to.

We have been working with the review panel since July, and have spent considerable time providing them with written records as well as multiple opportunities to sit with us to address questions or concerns. We have found this process to be healthy and helpful, and see no reason for it to not continue to be so.

This is an incredibly special place, managed with many different perspectives kept in mind. And there is so much that is positive going on here. We manage the Greenbank Farm with the highest integrity and we believe we deserve to hear what the specific concerns about our financial accounting might be so that we can respond. If there is an oversight, we want to fix it. Our community should feel confident and know that we are working in good faith with the Port and their review panel.

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